Lease deal not yet inked, broker says

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Downtown Juneau should still have a downtown grocery store to rely upon with lots of familiar faces after Sept. 8, Suzanne Williams of Alaska & Proud said Wednesday.

“It’s a go,” she said of a transfer of inventory and employees from A&P to the Myers Group, which runs supermarkets and other stores in Washington State.

The store’s final inventory will be taken on Sept. 8, and the next day the new owners will come in, Williams said.

“The only difference will be the shelves will be full of groceries again,” she explained.

But a part of the puzzle is still up in the air — the lease a new owner would need to do business there.

“There is no signed lease,” broker John Williams of Juneau Real Estate said Wednesday afternoon.

Calls to Myers Group CEO Tyler Myers about the status of the sale and lease negotiations were not returned.

While refusing to discuss the specifics of negotiations, John Williams said he expects to make a public announcement soon.

Myers group is based in Clinton, Wash., and runs five other grocery stores, as well as three service stations, three TrueValue Hardware outlets and two other retail businesses.

The Myers Group began in 1978 with one grocery store and has grown into a retail management company that also offers support services to start-ups and shopping center developers, among other services. The firm also helps customers who are constructing new buildings for their businesses.

According to the IGA/Kress Supermarket website Myers group presently has more than 300 employees in a variety of retail businesses and a high employee retention and satisfaction rate.

Suzanne Williams said the new owner plans to keep the store’s employees, and will need the inventory on hand until new stock can be brought in. She said shoppers may notice that Western Family products will be replaced with the Flavorite brand, but said the quality of the two product lines are the same and very good.

Suzanne Williams said the espresso business will also stay in the store. Ms. Williams said lease terms were the reason Alaska & Proud was pulling out of Juneau. She said both parties could not come to an agreement. “It just somehow broke down.”